But there looks to be a huge question mark against the futures of several other fringe first-teamers as Cook looks to trim numbers – and the wage bill.

They include Mikael Mandron, who arrived in January from non-league Eastleigh, but made only four appearances last term and hasn’t featured so far in pre-season.

Also likely to be on his way is striker Billy Mckay, who was signed from Inverness in January 2015, but has made just one Latics start, before being loaned out to Dundee United, Oldham and back to Caley.

Another expected to depart is midfielder Danny Whitehead, who is still to feature since arriving from Macclesfield in January 2016.

“Without a shadow of a doubt there’s going to be movement out,” Cook added.

“We want to bring in players, and the chairman’s been very supportive with that.

“He wants to sign players as much as we do, but we’re just tempering that with reducing the numbers.

“Sometimes if the right one is there, and you have to do it or risk missing out, you have to do it. But at the minute we are concentrating more on getting people out.”

The emergence of youngsters such as Owen Evans, Luke Burgess, Chris Merrie, Sam Stubbs and Callum Lang has also persuaded Cook to cull the number of senior pro’s not central to his plans.